by Samuel Small
Jake grabbed his head and shook it. This was too much to process right now, they were in contact, which meant they were likely colluding with the rebellion. That couldn’t be—
“Speaking of which,” Thun said, interrupting his thoughts, this time not lecturing Jake but addressing Bolt, “didn’t she say she worked with a Purist on that mission? You think it’s the same one that’s looking for us?”
“Nah, she said that one was rough and loud. I’m told the guy that’s wandering around is a somber figure. Doesn’t talk much, just kills Malice and accepts info about us as payment. We’re lucky those villages are loyal to us, or he might actually get something useful.”
Jake didn’t realize the Niflheim incident affected Dante that much.
“But that’s neither here nor there, the point is that we’re going to be assisting the rebellious forces in the Republic in a few days. That government, due to their own inaction, destroyed two whole countries. Jake, the strong have an obligation to protect the weak, don’t you think? They failed in that basic duty and killed off those people – and this is speculation – it probably lead to the creation of the Malice that we’re fighting now. Again, I’m not sure about it, but it seems awfully coincidental that they pop in almost as soon as Niflheim and Magnum Undo pop out.”
“Yeah, but according to you it was a demon who took out those countries. What do you think the Republic was supposed to do against something like that?”
“You serious?” Thun said, his arms crossed over his chest, “The Republic has a demon in its midst: Führer Bellator. The guy’s a total monster. I bet he could’ve taken that thing out no problem.”
Jake heard that Führer Bellator was very powerful, but he doubted he’d be able to take out such a fearsome creature. Only if he told them too much they might discover his identity, so he opted to simply nod.
“Anyway, 10 days is the long and short of it. We’ll be helping the community out for the next week, then we’re heading to the Republic to assist.”
The rebellion commences in 10 days. Jake heard the words echo in his head with a distorted, otherworldly cadence. He felt a shiver run down his spine. Then he tensed his face, trying to form a reaction that would be natural had he not been aware of this situation all along. He guessed shock wasn’t too weird though, as Thun and Bolt looked on without a hint of judgment on their faces. Jake nodded soberly. “So when’s our next mission?”
Their next mission, Bolt told him, was today. Jake blinked a couple of times, perplexed. Usually he got more notice than that, but then shrugged it off. These guys weren’t a high functioning government, so they probably decided things on the fly.
“It’s not that,” Thun said, responding to Jake’s thoughts as if he could read his mind, “we just didn’t know if you wanted to stay. We didn’t want you sticking around out of obligation or something.”
Bolt nodded his assent. “If you want to dip out we’d understand.”
And there it was. Jake got the information he wanted and was given an opportunity to escape handed to him on a silver platter. Mission complete, he could dust off his sword, wipe his hands, and return to the Republic. Only what they said got to Jake. He did feel obligated to help. The Lightning Gang wasn’t your run-of-the-mill belligerent posse, they performed acts of charity and helped their community whenever possible. The proof of this was that despite having to go to war in a little over a week they were helping out until the last possible moment. Jake thought he should try to emulate that virtue.
“No, I think I’ll stick around until the end,” he said with a shrug.
Traveler
The figure walked just beyond the limits of the horizon, its gray poncho flapping in the cool breeze. Jeremiah, a young boy of seven, receded inward at the sudden chill, but the figure continued forward as if nothing happened. It confused the child. Perhaps it isn’t a human at all, he thought, albeit only briefly. He stared at the figure, mesmerized, as it approached his village. As he did, others gathered beside him to watch.
Jeremiah wasn’t very smart and didn’t know much about grown-ups, but he could tell just by looking at the others that they were scared of something. But this man must have kept his promise since he was returning, so what was there to be afraid of?
Soon the figure was upon them, and Jeremiah marveled at the odd color of the person’s hair. It was a dim shade of orange, something he’d never seen before. He’d seen bright and vibrant orange – Jonah, one of the kids he palled around with, had that shade, but this man’s hair was somehow faded as if it was left out in harsh weather for too long.
He got closer and began talking to the village elder about adult things that Jeremiah didn’t really comprehend, but he generally understood they were discussing his payment. It was then that Jeremiah realized another peculiar thing about the man – he wasn’t a man at all, he was a boy. A big kid for sure, but a kid nonetheless. He looked to be about Jonah’s older brother’s age, which would put him at around 15.
The village elder tried to hand him a satchel, which Jeremiah figured was filled with gold, but the cloaked boy put a hand up and refused to accept it. Jeremiah thought he heard a ‘no-no’ utterance casually thrown into the refusal, which he marveled at as probably the coolest thing ever. The boy with the jaded hair, who up until then had been reasonably polite and even a bit playful, dropped his arms to his sides as if they were dead weight and then looked up at the elder.
“Actually, if you’re really grateful you can pay me in information.”
The elder nodded frantically, eager to please. “Yes, I’ll help if I can.”
“What do you know about a group with a lightning symbol embroidered on their jackets?”
Jeremiah retreated into himself. When the boy said this, his eyes got really scary. It was as if he saw nothing before him and they were cast inward. Those eyes, Jeremiah’s grandma had once told him, could not see the present, nor could they see the future. They only remained locked on the past. Suddenly all of Jeremiah’s appreciation for the boy crumbled into dust, and only fear remained. The elder also looked shaken by the boy’s dead eyes and dropped eye contact, shifting his focus to the ground as Jeremiah did when he got in trouble.
“No?” the boy said, “I get that a lot round here.” He walked past the man and through the crowd that gathered, and offered a brief glance to Jeremiah. Jeremiah felt his eyes well up with tears, and turned away, fearful of the scary boy who continued out of sight in pursuit of whatever it was those lost eyes were locked on.
Chapter 4
Slashing and whirling, the creature before the three boys tore through the ground, unearthing soil and uprooting foliage in a violent display of malevolent evil. It crashed its dripping wet arm into a nearby building, flexing the wood and causing it to splinter. With another titanic swing it smashed a hole through the same entryway, cutting its arm on one of the splintered pieces of wood in the process. Its wound, now a flowing liquid unlike the solidity of its body, whipped and whirled around, staining the whole area black.
Jake hesitated to approach: it was backed into a corner so it lashed out, making its movements unpredictable. He looked to his right where Thun stared at it with grim fascination, his pistol clenched tightly. He waited, intent on an opening or finding a pattern in its behavior. Jake looked to his right where Bolt stared back at him. He nodded and Jake understood intrinsically what they were going to do.
Bolt and Thun fanned out in perfect sync, Bolt firing at the creature from the left and Thun the right. They pumped bullets into it, which found their way into its seeping flesh, causing more gelatinous muck to flow. It roared a grotesque screech of pain and began to lash out in a fury.
Bolt fired. Then Thun. Then Bolt. Then Thun. There was an almost musical rhythm to the exchange. With each bullet the creature turned and tried to lash out at the person responsible, only to be struck from behind by another round and turn again to confront its aggressor. They kept the thing in a perpetual loop, and Jake charged.
Bolt and Thun backed off and stopped firing, they were smart and didn’t want any stray bullets to hit Jake. The creature, still caught off guard from the barrage of bullets, didn’t see Jake until it was too late. He wound up, cut it in two in one mighty swing, and let it fall before him and cry out in pain. Jake ran his sword through the ground and upward, slicing the creature’s head in two.
He looked at the ground where the creature fell. Its figure was still imprinted in the grass, causing the foliage to lay in matted tendrils. Jake stood panting and heard the soft crunch of footsteps drawing nearer, two pairs to be precise. He did not turn to see them, nor they him, all three stared at the impression in the ground. It looked unnatural, a thing that shouldn’t exist was now dead, but it still left its mark on this world. On the earth before them, as well as this village as a whole.
Slowly, the doors of the surrounding houses began to open one by one. The villagers, in ragged clothes, congregated to the spot and stared at the indent. They all had the same expression, a sort of solemn victory. Not the kind of victory where anything was gained, but rather that things would not continue to be lost. Out of the crowd stepped the village elder, although elder wasn’t really the right word as he was only maybe a decade older than Jake. In his hands he was carrying a brown satchel.
“It isn’t much, but please accept this.”
Bolt put up a hand. “No, your village is poor enough. Help us once you get your community back together.”
The man bowed several times, giving frantic nods. Jake noted that his initial assumption about him was perhaps incorrect. Not about his age but the term he used: elder. The bags under his eyes and lines that ran across his face indicated that he had seen much despite his young age. Enough to be called elder at the very least.
Jake’s companions turned and began to walk away from the village, and he followed, sparing one final glance at the distressed villagers. They all stood and watched the group go with that same kind of unhappy thankfulness.
When they were out of earshot Jake asked his comrades exactly where they were going.
“We’re going to some villages on the other side of Deathridge,” Thun said, “we usually have trouble getting past it, since it’s so big and everyone and their mother wants to control it. But because of that we really haven’t had the opportunity to help people on the other side. Be prepared to put some work in though.”
Jake didn’t nod, but continued to look forward. He wasn’t sure why, but he felt this group was able to grasp his feelings, even if he didn’t say anything. He wasn’t entirely sure about passing through a place called ‘Deathridge,’ and if anything he heard about it was true he was right to be apprehensive, but that wasn’t his primary concern. Thun said that they hadn’t had the opportunity to be in that part of the realm, which meant the villages there were probably overrun with Malice. Despite this, the only ones sent on the mission were Jake, Bolt, and Thun. You’d figure they’d send the whole platoon, he thought.
“Everyone else is busy preparing for the rebellion,” Bolt said. As Jake suspected, their telepathy was unmatched.
The sun had begun to sink toward the Earth, painting the sky in vibrant shades of orange and red. Jake faced it, then squinted up into the dying light. He turned toward his companions, who nodded. They were all in agreement that they should make camp for the night. This section of the world was very dangerous come nightfall.
They found a cave just off the rocky path, and Bolt said it was the perfect place to stay. Jake wasn’t so sure, fearing there was a particularly dangerous Malice that might be lurking. Hell, since legends and myths seemed to be fact now, they might even be faced with a mighty dragon so he raised his concerns with the other two. “I doubt your bullets would do much to one,” Jake finished, a teasing grin emerging on his lips.
“Yeah, I bet even your sword wouldn’t pierce a dragon,” Bolt said, “I mean, aren’t their hides supposed to be super tough?”
“Yeah,” Thun agreed, “and they can breathe fire and stuff.”
“I guess in a way, they were the first Sol users,” Jake said.
They all stood before the dark entrance of the cave, mulling over this last statement. Jake never thought about things like that usually, and he wondered if somewhere in the realms there were animals that could use Sol. He thought he read about it somewhere in a book once, but he couldn’t remember if it was superstitious folklore or scientific fact.
“Regardless of whether it’s some Malice or dragon, or hell, even a Malice dragon,” Bolt said, “I bet the three of us could take ’em!”
Jake smiled and nodded – they probably could, so the three of them entered the cave, found that there were no strange creatures or monsters, unpacked, and slept.
***
It was early morning when Jake awoke, so early that the sky was not yet fully illuminated, casting a strange pink hue that for a second made his heart skip a beat. Then the sleeping bags toward either side of him began to move and two people sat up, rubbing their eyes and moaning drearily. Jake didn’t like being up at this ungodly hour either, but working for the government for so long made it kind of unavoidable. He bet the Lightning Gang made their own hours and slept and got up when they wanted.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you,” Jake said. He looked to Thun, who just stared at Jake with a blank expression, perhaps too tired to make one, then turned to Bolt. His pink hair stuck up in a bedhead worthy of Jake’s unwanted nickname, and he yawned while patting his hand over his mouth.
“No worries,” he said, “the sooner we get up, the sooner we get there. The sooner we get there, the more of those things we can kill before we have to head back.”
“Right,” Thun said, although he didn’t sound anywhere near as enthusiastic as Bolt. “Come on, let’s pack up and head out.”
The path to Deathridge involved hiking along vertiginous mountainous paths. It didn’t involve any climbing, but the trails weren’t exactly safe either. Several times, Jake had to jump over large fissures, the ground being several hundred feet below. Other times he had to shimmy along narrow passageways, and eventually they had to pass through the inside of the mountain.
As he passed through a cavern, Jake marveled at the pulsing light of the luminous rocks native to the area known as ‘Sol stones.’ It reminded him of the soft pulsing streetlights of the Republic, and he suddenly found himself feeling homesick. He stopped, a bit awestruck by the strange stones, and both Bolt and Thun slowed their stride to wait for him.
Suddenly, Thun pivoted on his foot and turned around. It was a sharp noise, his sneaker screeching across the wet cavern, and it snapped Jake to attention. Bolt reached for his gun and Jake bent his knees, easing his hand toward the hilt of his sword. They were all silent for a moment, Jake couldn’t even hear them breathing. Then a splash came from deeper in the cavern: someone walking. Only it was softer somehow, deliberately contained. Someone was trying to sneak up on them.
Jake knew that people tried to control Deathridge, one had to cross it if they wanted to get to that half of the continent, but was it possible that people went out this far to influence it? His ear trained on the sound, Jake could tell this person was getting closer, and with each step he inched his hand closer to his sword. Soon, whoever it was began making their way around the bend of the twisting cavern. Jake could see their shadow, stretched out and otherworldly, creeping up the wall.
Stepping into the exposed light was a man not too much older than Jake, perhaps 20 at the most, wearing a large coat and a fedora. In his right hand he had a pole, presumably for navigating the treacherous mountain. He looked at the group, who all had their hands on their weapons, and stopped. He looked from one to the other, blinking through wide eyes. Jake sighed and took his hand off his sword. It looked like this guy wasn’t going to be a threat.
No sooner had Jake allowed his arm to rest at his side than he caught sight of the strange man, who no longer looked on with confused and bewildered eyes, but
rather those of a predator. A knowing smirk flickered on his lips.
Jake went to grab his sword, but he already brought his hand down and the distance was too great to react in time. The stranger extended his hand out, and several pulsing black rings shot outward, seemingly creating ripples in the very reality they occupied. Jake’s ears started to vibrate and his balance began to waver. He swayed to the side, stumbled, and tried to grip the stone wall, but the effort was pointless and he fell to the ground. His shoulder hurt from the impact, and his vision began to fade. Through the blurring image, he saw Bolt and Thun on the ground, desperately reaching for their weapons, but they too were losing consciousness. Jake clutched at the cold ground weakly, then let the twisting waves overtake him.
***
When he awoke, Jake found that the side of his head hurt with an intense throbbing pain. He tried to place his hand on it, only to find them bound behind his back. He shook them, and found that they were wrapped with tightly tied rope. Realizing he was captured, Jake took in his surroundings.
The area was still partially lit by that dim blue glow of the Sol stones, but it was gloomy and damp so he realized they were still in the cavern within the mountain. Opposite him, the light gleamed off his sword within the darkness, as well as Bolt and Thun’s guns.
Something shifted to his left, and Jake realized that Bolt and Thun were bound in a similar manner next to him. He opened his mouth to speak, but Thun shook his head. He jerked his head toward the bend in the room, around which nothing was visible. Jake listened intently and heard a soft plopping sound. There must be someone just outside waiting for them to wake up. Thun then turned his gaze to their weapons, and Jake caught his meaning: they had to get to them without being heard by the guard.